The Wheeler Centre

Afleveringen

• 
  Geetanjali Shree in Conversation 16.09.2026 42min

  India’s great chronicler of memory, family, identity and belonging sits down with host Mridula Nath Chakraborty to discuss her luminous, genre-defying books and extraordinary literary career.  Originally presented on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre. ‘Anything worth doing transcends borders,’ writes Geetanjali Shree in her 2022 International Booker Prize-winning novel, Tomb of Sand. This sentiment also encapsulates her career to date. An author writing in Hindi, with her gaze firmly fixed on the lives and concerns of Indian characters, Shree tells the kind of polyphonic, big-hearted stories that chime with universal truth. From Our City That Year, an evocative tale of love, loss and the indelible marks left by time, to the poetic and formally inventive short stories in the collection Once Elephants Lived Here, to the lauded Tomb of Sand, Shree’s work offers readers insight into the rich plurality of the world.Join her for a conversation about the ascendency of South Asian literature, the life-changing impact of winning the International Booker Prize and how storytelling connects us across backgrounds and borders.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Cory Doctorow: Enshittification 01.09.2026 1u 9min

  Tech critic Cory Doctorow on the broken promise of the utopian internet, the systems that sustain it and what it might take to reclaim a more open digital future. With host Professor Lisa M. Given, Director, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments at RMIT University. Originally presented on Tuesday 25 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Now or Never and RMIT University.You’re not imagining it: the experience of being online is getting worse. Services degrade, platforms shift and what once felt open and useful becomes harder to recognise. What was once good is now… shit. This is not a glitch. In fact, it’s by design. ‘Enshittification’, a term coined by tech critic Cory Doctorow, names what is already happening.In this talk, Doctorow outlines how major platforms like Facebook, Amazon and X are structured to follow this trajectory. First, users are drawn in with convenience and connection. Then, advertisers are invited into the system. Finally, the experience itself is stripped back in the pursuit of profit.Featured music is 'Traveling Again' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.The official bookseller was Brunswick Bound.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  The 2026 E.W. Cole Lecture: Alice Pung on Keeping Calm and Carrying On 25.08.2026 31min

  What does it take to keep showing up to the blank page? Award-winning author Alice Pung offers reasons for optimism in this year’s E. W. Cole Lecture. Originally presented on Thursday 6 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre, supported by the E. W. Cole Foundation.  Two decades ago, Alice Pung published Unpolished Gem, a funny, loving and irreverent portrait of a migrant family’s everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her beloved debut, Pung presents this year’s E. W. Cole Lecture on a subject near to her heart: the fundamentals of writing and the circumstances under which writers practice their craft. Drawing on knowledge earned from writing 15 books across contemporary fiction, YA, children’s literature and non-fiction, she examines the work that goes into the act of creation and what it takes to carry on writing, day after day.   Pung speaks on the quiet power of turning up through crises, changing political situations and changing tastes, and what makes it all worthwhile: how writing – and reading – can help us make sense of our lives, and the world at large, now more than ever.The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore.Featured music is Br1ghter (Instrumental Version) by Tape Machines.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Mick Herron: Slough House and Slow Horses 11.08.2026 54min

  An unmissable episode for Slow Horses fans, writer Mick Herron unveils the next instalment in his phenomenally successful Slough House series with host Jason Steger. Originally presented on Thursday 21 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University.Spies lie. They betray. It is what they do. Readers were first introduced to Jackson Lamb and his team of misbegotten secret service agents in Slow Horses, an offbeat spy story filled with biting satire, murky morality and political prescience.In Clown Town, the latest instalment of the series, the ugly side of state security threatens to come to light as the disappearance of a mysterious book and the death of a sadistic former IRA informant has secret agent River Cartwright asking some uncomfortable questions. Filled with blackmail, covert operations and cover-ups that go all the way to the top, this page-turner sees the slow horses embroiled in their most high-stakes spy games yet.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Stan Grant: When Words Fail Us 28.07.2026 1u 2min

  Hear from acclaimed author and broadcaster Stan Grant in this special edition of The Fifth Estate as he reflects on the fragility of words and why contemplation and philosophy matter in an era of increasing division, with host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Tuesday 16 July 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University. Drawing wisdom from an array of thinkers and artists, including Plato, Simone Weil, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Aquinas and even Radiohead, Stan Grant’s expansive and philosophical new book When Words Fail Us invites readers to reconsider the meaning and necessity of silence in an age of noise, speed and relentless distraction. Written after stepping away from public life, the book explores how words can fail to meet the moment in the context of Australia’s history, identity and political division. Grant offers a rare insight into how the power of listening can lead to connection, compassion and love. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole. The official bookseller was Hill of Content.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Ed Coper: Angertainment 14.07.2026 45min

  Ed Coper explains how angertainment has co-opted our social media feeds and taken over our lives, in conversation with Sushi Das.Originally presented on Wednesday 24 June 2026 by The Wheeler Centre and supported by RMIT University. Social media is no longer a platform for connection – it’s a gladiatorial arena powered by an addictive mix of anger and entertainment. As a result, we’re being driven apart: our politics more extreme and empathy on the decline, while those who know how to game the outrage economy for clicks only become more powerful and influential. In this illuminating in-conversation, pioneer communications expert and the strategist behind GetUp! – Australia's first major online political movement – Ed Coper sits down to unmask the architects of this new power. From manosphere gurus and tech oligarchs to political demagogues and corporate giants, he reveals how social media has evolved into an outrage machine that feeds on scandals, spectacle, extremism and notoriety to bait us into constant engagement. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Amitav Ghosh in Conversation 30.06.2026 41min

  Celebrated writer and thinker Amitav Ghosh explores rebirth, regeneration and the cycles of life with host Dr Sreedhevi Iyer. Originally presented on Wednesday 27 May by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University. Amitav Ghosh is one of India’s most celebrated writers. With a career effortlessly spanning fiction, non-fiction and reportage, his work is characterised by big picture thinking with an unwavering drive to bring the climate crisis into stark focus. These qualities are on display in his captivating new novel, Ghost-Eye, a story that begins in mid-century Calcutta, with a child who claims to remember a past life and leaps to contemporary Brooklyn, where a middle-aged antiquarian is drawn into investigating a family mystery. As the two seemingly unrelated stories converge, Ghosh crafts a narrative that offers a powerful meditation on fate, meaning and the awakening of wonder. Ghosh sits down with Sreedhevi Iyer to discuss his latest novel, what it means to write about the climate breakdown and his remarkable career to date. Featured music is 'No One There' by Ava Low.The official bookseller was Readings.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Jimmy Wales: Founder of Wikipedia 10.06.2026 1u 10min

  Hear from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales as he discusses the importance of trust in our online and offline communities and how Wikipedia evolved into one of the internet’s most reputable sources of information. With host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Wednesday 20 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University.When Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia more than two decades ago, he changed the landscape of knowledge forever – although at the time, almost no one realised it. Today, Wikipedia draws 11 billion monthly views in the English language alone.In the current ‘post-truth’ era, the internet is a sea of disinformation, the rise of AI threatens to erode hard-won knowledge and facts are increasingly malleable. In his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust, Wales shows us that it's more important than ever to return to the problem at the heart of it all: that without trust, we have no knowledge. And without knowledge, we can't fight back.In this fascinating edition of The Fifth Estate, Wales sits down with host Sally Warhaft to discuss the importance of trust in our online and offline communities, how Wikipedia evolved into one of the internet’s most reputable sources of information and shares his optimistic take on the future.The official bookseller was Hill of Content.Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Kathy Lette: The Sisterhood Rules 26.05.2026 45min

  Beloved humourist Kathy Lette joins host Elizabeth McCarthy to discuss her big-hearted, cheeky and deeply relatable novel, The Sisterhood Rules.  Originally presented on Wednesday 25th March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.Full of laugh-out-loud humour and flashes of devastating pathos, Kathy Lette’s The Sisterhood Rules is a romp through secrets, scandal and the unbreakable – if occasionally exasperated – bonds of sisterhood. Twin sisters Isabel and Verity have always been inseparable – until Verity has an affair with Izzy's husband, leaving them hopelessly estranged. But when their mother goes missing, Verity and Izzy are forced to reunite to find her. From there, the problems only get bigger: their mother has a new younger lover and where there's a will … he'd clearly like to be in it. Can the sisters stop their mother from making a truly terrible mistake? And, while they’re at it, can they salvage their own relationship from the rubble? The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop. Featured music is 'Lucy's Trail (Don't Give Up)' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Emily Maitlis: From Headlines to a Fallen Prince 12.05.2026 1u 9min

  Acclaimed British journalist Emily Maitlis reflects on a remarkable career at the forefront of global news, sharing insights and behind-the-scenes stories from some of the world’s most explosive headlines. With host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Thursday 5 March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.Over a decades-long career, Maitlis has covered everything from the Paris terror attacks and the Grenfell fires to Brexit, interviewing everyone from prime ministers and presidents to Nobel laureates and Hollywood stars.She is perhaps best known for her 2019 interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – then Prince Andrew, Duke of York – regarding his association with Jeffrey Epstein. The four-hour conversation was widely credited with prompting Mountbatten-Windsor to relinquish his honorary military titles, royal patronages and ultimately resign from public duties.Maitlis recounts the world-changing events she has witnessed, as well as the bust-ups, blow-ups, scoops, walk-outs and unexpected triumphs that come with making – and breaking – the news. The official bookseller was Readings. Featured music is 'Living in a Fantasy' by Pulsed.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Shaun Micallef: De'Ath Takes a Holiday 28.04.2026 1u 4min

  Join national treasure Shaun Micallef as he takes the stage to delve into this bitingly funny Victorian Gothic tale for the modern age. With Jacinta Parsons. Originally presented on Tuesday 31 March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Move over, Dracula, and take a number, Nosferatu: there’s a new vampire in town, and after several thousand years he’s realised that the trouble with immortality is that eventually … it sucks.To soothe his sickened soul, the Comte De’Ath embarks on a grand holiday. From psychoanalysis in Vienna to blood transfusions in London, the Comte learns that a change of scenery can do wonders for the eternally living. Along the way, he meets the Queen, helps win the Second Matabele War, nudges Henry Ford towards the American Dream and even manages to fall in love. But with his own funeral scheduled at Carfax Abbey, the real question looms: can he become mortal again in time to attend it? The official bookseller was the Sun Bookshop. Featured music is ‘Traveling again’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Who's Afraid of a Joke? 14.04.2026 1u 2min

  A host of Melbourne International Comedy Festival comics gather to explore how comedy survives, thrives and occasionally lands a punch on authoritarianism.  The powerful often say they have a sense of humour. This turns out to be true – provided the joke is about someone else. From public denunciations to legal action and intimidation, comedians across the world are increasingly required to work within narrowing spaces, where the right punchline at the expense of the wrong politician carries the risk of personal and professional consequences. When laughter is policed this closely, what does it reveal about the strength – and fragility – of power? Join host Tom Ballard alongside leading comic voices Bahaa Dabbagh, Leon Filewood and Sam Jay for a timely conversation on the role and power of comedy in an age of rising authoritarianism.  This event was recorded on Saturday 28 March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre. It was presented in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival  Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist. Content warning: This episode contains strong course language.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Nell Zink: Sister Europe 31.03.2026 53min

  Literary icon Nell Zink joins host Jaclyn Crupi to discuss her seventh much acclaimed novel, Sister Europe. In this dazzling satire of modern life, an eclectic cast of characters gathers at a tedious literary award ceremony in Berlin. Over the course of the evening, their assumptions, foibles and irrepressible humanity are slowly brought to light.A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and the celebrated author of Avalon, Doxology and Nicotine, among others, Nell Zink is widely hailed as a singular voice in literary fiction. In a Melbourne first, she takes the stage at The Wheeler Centre to discuss her sharp and tightly wrought new novel, Sister Europe, and its animating themes: loneliness and the possibility of transcending it, the tension between old and new worldviews and the challenge of defining one’s identity in an increasingly complex world.This event was recorded on Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop.Featured music is Lucy’s Trail (Don’t Give Up) by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Laila Lalami: The Dream Hotel 17.03.2026 46min

  Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel is a chilling dissection of surveillance culture, technological overreach and the quiet, everyday ways people become complicit in their own monitoring. Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, Lalami tells the story of a woman swept into a surreal dystopia where dreams are weaponised by the state. Accused of a crime she hasn’t committed – yet – and detained indefinitely in a retention centre in the Californian desert, she must navigate a world in which corporations trade in the contents of our subconscious and algorithms claim the authority to determine guilt, innocence and destiny. Lalami joins host Sonia Nair to explore the seductive pull of technology, the commodification of the private self and the unnervingly plausible future where a single line of code could seal a person’s fate. This event was recorded on Wednesday March 4th 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was The Chestnut Tree Bookshop.Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Kate Reid: On Fast Cars and Croissants 09.12.2025 1u 3min

  At 13, Kate Reid already knew exactly where she was headed: a career in Formula 1 and a life lived at full throttle. But after earning a degree in aerospace engineering and taking up a coveted position at one of the top F1 teams in the UK, she discovered that the reality didn’t match what she’d dreamed. So, she made a swerve no one expected: to forge a career in pastry.  With her Melbourne-born bakery Lune Croissanterie now famous worldwide, Reid sits down to reflect on her unique path, from initially pursuing aerospace engineering at RMIT University, to following her lifelong passion for F1 racing, to finding fame as the mastermind behind ‘the best croissant in the world’ (The New York Times).  Join Reid as she discusses perfection, obsession and making her own kind of success story, with host Alice Zaslavsky.    Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This 25.11.2025 59min

  Hear Omar El Akkad discuss his searing work, 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' with host Tasneem Chopra. Sparked by his viral tweet during the bombardment of Gaza – viewed over 10 million times – Omar El Akkad’s 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' lays bare the fractures he has seen in the West’s empty promises of freedom and justice.  In this timely session, the Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist reflects on how events like the Black Lives Matter protests, the escalating climate crisis and the violence in the Middle East have reshaped his understanding of migration, power and inequality and forced him to confront what it means to live in a West that has betrayed its fundamental values.   Praised by Richard Flanagan as ‘a howl from the heart of our age’, El Akkad’s book explores exactly how the West has failed and offers hope for a way forward. Originally presented on Wednesday 22 October 2025 by The Wheeler Centre. The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore. Featured music is 'City Phases' by John Abbot.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Sophie Gilbert: Girl on Girl 12.11.2025 59min

  Hear from Atlantic culture critic and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Sophie Gilbert as she discusses her new book 'Girl on Girl' with host Kate Jinx. They dive into the pop cultural forces of the late 1990s and Y2K era that shaped and warped women's relationships with themselves and other women. Casting her eye across pop culture of the past 30 years, she tackles everything from Madonna, the Spice Girls and the Kardashians, to MySpace, the #GirlBoss movement and The Simple Life. In this new book, Gilbert reveals the cultural forces that shaped a generation and laid the groundwork for the misogyny of today. In this conversation, Gilbert discusses how millennial pop culture twisted feminism into objectification, the insidious power of media narratives and the pervasive influence of porn, and her own experience of growing up during these defining decades.Originally recorded on Tuesday 21 October 2025 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was The Sun Bookshop.Featured music is 'No One There' by Ava Low.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  Australian Story: Leigh Sales with Jelena Dokic 28.10.2025 22min

  After arriving in Australia as a refugee, Jelena Dokic shot to fame when she made the semi-finals of Wimbledon at just 17 years of age. But off the court, there were even greater challenges: from her struggles with mental health to surviving the abuse of her tennis coach father.    In this special live recording of Australian Story, Dokic opens up to Leigh Sales about the details of her extraordinary life, from escaping war-torn Yugoslavia to becoming a Grand Slam finalist. She reflects on her past, from overcoming child abuse and domestic violence and explores the impact it had on her mental health. Despite the obstacles she faced, Jelena found a way to not only survive, but thrive – transforming her pain into power and purpose. She discovered her voice, built a successful career after tennis and ultimately found happiness.  Hear Dokic speak with grace and honesty about her hard-won wisdom and the strength it takes to rise above hardship.This event recorded on Thursday 18 September 2025 at The Edge, Federation Square. It was presented in partnership with the ABC.The official bookseller was Readings. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  [Podcast Exclusive] Eric Puchner: Dream State 14.10.2025 43min

  An exclusive Wheeler Centre live-recorded podcast featuring best-selling American author Eric Puchner, as he lifts the curtain on his latest novel 'Dream State', in conversation with host Ronnie Scott. Selected by Oprah for her book club in 2025 and an instant New York Times bestseller, 'Dream State' tells the story of Charlie, a gifted anaesthesiologist; his best friend Garrett, a brooding, introverted nerd; and medical school drop-out Cece, whose engagement to Charlie seems certain – until she meets Garrett.  A love triangle plays out across generations in this panoramic and deeply human tale of family, loss and the fragile dreams that shape our lives. Hear from Puchner as he discusses this work of exceptional literary depth in this exclusive podcast recording. This podcast was originally recorded on Monday 6 October 2025 by The Wheeler Centre. Featured music is ‘Diffuser’ by Shiruky.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
• 
  We Used to Be Journos: Live 07.10.2025 1u 1min

  Get your fix of honest and original media analysis from two insiders who’ve broken plenty of news and been broken by it, too. In this special live recording of We Used to be Journos, hosts Antoinette Lattouf and Jan Fran sit down to reveal the way the media works, from questionable editorial decisions that shape the weekly news to the stories that masquerade as unbiased reporting. They unpack some recent headlines and reveal how the media sausage gets made – so you know what you’re being fed. In this fearless assessment of the Australian media landscape they have a low tolerance for spin and absolutely no time for BS. You’ll never look at the news in the same way again. Originally presented on Saturday 20 September 2025 by The Wheeler Centre, in partnership with Ette Media.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.